A Different Light —
Elizabeth A. Lynn

1978’s
standalone novel A
Different Light
was written by Elizabeth A. Lynn. She is an
author I enjoy..

Jimson
Alleca has the bad luck (a one in a billion chance) to be an adult
cancer patient in a galaxy where cancer is unknown. Modern medicine
may have failed him, but it can at least offer him good odds of
surviving until his fifties. Provided he is lucky. Provided his
doctors can keep finding new treatments faster than the cancer can
kill him. Provided he never, ever tries to leave his homeworld; the
stress of travel through hyperspace would reduce his remaining years
from twenty to one.

Living
to be safe may be extending his life but it’s killing his soul.
Others may still applaud his art, but he can tell his development has
stalled. When Russell, a former lover who left Jimson years ago,
sends an enigmatic message, Jimson cannot resist the lure of mystery
and escape. Better one year of glory than decades of stagnation.

Two
factors make the odds of finding Russell poor. Not only does Jimson
have only a short time to live now that he has passed through the
Hype, he has no idea where Russell might be, whether on one of the
worlds of the Milky Way or in the new settlements in the Magellanic
Clouds. Luckily for Jimson, Russell finds him.

Now
calling himself “Pirate,” Russell is what another author might
have called a salvage expert, recovering items in exchange for large
sums of money (Travis always limited himself to restoring
stolen items, but Russell seems to have no such qualms). The next
assignment will challenge even the seasoned and wily Russell.
Enigmatic billionaire De Vala wants Russell to travel to 82 Eridani
(a system dangerously close to a known navigational hazard) and to a
planet that appears on no chart, to a temple worshipping unknown
gods, to steal a mask of untold power. What could go wrong?

And
what better way for Jimson to spend his final months than
accompanying his lover to a barbarian world whose inhabitants are
unlikely to view the theft of their most sacred relics with favour?

~oOo~

I
am not a huge fan of books about artists … or authors. At least
Jimson isn’t an author. And this book is really more about
relationships than the agony of creativity. And it’s a caper novel,
kinda, in the sense that Elgin’s looting of the Parthenon was a caper.

Just
a heads-up for people who don’t care for sad endings: the sad thing
about fatal illnesses for which no cure exists is that the people so
afflicted often die. Lynn softens the blow somewhat (in a manner
which my reviewer’s oath compels me to conceal), but Jimson’s
incurable disease really is incurable and travelling through
hyperspace has exactly the effect on its progression that the doctors
predicted. There is no magic cure waiting at 82 Eridani. Still, death
was the coin Jimson willingly paid to accomplish goals that were more
important to him than a chance of living twenty more years.

Modern
readers may be tempted to see the dying bisexual’s incurable
ailment as a metaphor for AIDS. Do not fall to temptation! This novel
predates the era when gay and bisexual characters seemed doomed to
die of either AIDS or ham-fisted metaphors for AIDS. Although it
certainly existed in 1978, AIDS was not clinically observed in the US
until 1981; the term AIDS was not adopted until 1982. Jimson’s
cancer is actually just what it says on the tin. As bad as cancer is
now, survival rates used to be much worse. Jimson’s condition
reflects the time the book was written.

There
are a number of possible explanations for the survival of a barbarian
world in a galaxy overrun with starships. Author Lynn chose the
explanation that FTL routes don’t map one-for-one onto regular
space. 82 Eridani is close enough to the Solar System that it was
initially settled by a generation ship, but FTL routes are such that
it is hard to reach by FTL. With lots of other planets to explore, no
one bothered with this one for a long time. Once it was re-contacted,
the galactics decided to apply something like Star Trek’s Prime
Directive1. Hands off the natives! Unfortunately, it seems
that settling even comparatively habitable worlds can have ugly
failure modes when the colony is cut off from regular contact.

One
plot twist surprised me: the person who throughout the book seems
destined to be the Big Bad turns out to be just another pitiful,
fallible human. He’s not dealing with incurable cancer, like
Jimson, but his problems are just as inescapable. His vast fortune
can only manage them, not than resolve them.

Disco-Era
readers might have been surprised to learn that Jimson’s big love
was another man. Or that everyone in this world of tomorrow seems to
be polyamorous. Or that a high fraction of the population seems to be
bisexual. Of course, these days such things are hardly worth noting …
but bear in mind that when this book came out, Lawrence
v Texas
was still a quarter-century in the future.

The
1970s were in general a time of experimentation. Sometimes these
experiments worked (the EPA) and sometimes they didn’t. Like
polyester. How could everyone have thought that wearing garish
clothing made out of solidified napalm was a good idea? And then
there were the folks experimenting with homosexuality, bisexuality,
and polyamory. Just because the legal systems of the world dragged
their feet on such matters does not mean all SF did or that Lynn’s
readers did. One suspects Lynn’s fanbase sought out her book
specifically for LGB-friendly themes. In fact, one influential LGBT
bookstore, A Different Light, took
its name from Lynn’s novel.

1:
Another factor in the isolation of this world is the draconian
regulatory system the galactics have created to prevent interstellar
drug smuggling. Making it difficult for people to travel without
being closely monitored is just part of an ongoing War on Drugs. See
also The Sardonyx Net for some unintended consequences of this policy.